Russia has sent a capsule-full of classroom animals into orbit around the earth for about a month.
But, far from a stunt for the upcoming Earth Day, Russia's Federal Space Agency, also called Roscosmos, says it launched 45 mice, eight Mongolian gerbils, 15 geckos and numerous other species, including snails, in order to test how long stretches in a zero-gravity environment affect living creatures --- and, ultimately, human beings.
The new animal astronauts launched into orbit at 6 a.m. EDT Friday atop a Russian-built Soyuz 2 rocket that lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, in Central Asia.
The rocket carried the Bion-M1 space capsule, which is expected to spend a month in orbit, flying 357 miles (575 kilometers) above Earth while a group of international scientists on the ground monitor the health of the capsule's passengers.
One one of the areas researchers will be focused on is how being in outer-space impacts animal reproductive processes, reports Space.com
Nicole Rayl, project manager for the National Aeronautics and Spave Administration, which has a hand in the mission, explained to Space.com "the unique nature of this mission is that it's a 30-day mission, so it's longer than a lot of the other animal and biological missions we've flown. The big importance for us is that we get to compare data from this longer mission with better analytical tools that we have today, [compared] to the missions we've flown in the past that were similar but not exactly the same."
Said Rayl: "There has been a long history of this kind of biological research over the past 40 years and NASA and the Russian side have been collaborating for that entire time, which is pretty remarkable. But each mission kind of brings a unique focus, be it the actual duration of the mission or the specimens being flown."
Bion-M1 is Russia's first mission in 17 years dedicated to launching animals into space and the longest flight of its kind in the history of that country's science program.
The last such Bion mission carried rhesus monkeys, geckos and amphibians into orbit for 15 days in 1996.
Scientists will monitor a wide variety of health metrics for the animals while the creatures are on board. The spacecraft will beam down information about the health of the animals and the conditions inside the capsule.
One of the NASA experiments focuses on how microgravity and radiation affect sperm motility in mice.
If humans plan to travel on long flights to visit other planets, Rayl said, it would be important to know if they will be able to procreate in space.
Some future missions could literally take decades to complete, so sex in space would be necessary to continue the human race.
After a month in orbit, the menagerie, if all goes as planned, is expected to return home safe and healthy.
On the other hand, short of a parade or any other type of hero's welcome, all the cosmic critters are set to be euthanized after their excellent adventure, so that scientists can collect the data from the mission's various experiments.
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